Another one of the novels sent to me for review by Xcite Books, this time the first of a trilogy.

Warning: SPOILERS ahead!

Rating: ★★★★☆ 4/5

“An Executive Decision is book one of the Executive Decisions trilogy by Grace Marshall, otherwise known as KD Grace. I’d never read anything of hers before but I had heard good things, so when I was sent this book to review I was happy to begin. It was interesting for me to read a book like this, since I generally opt to read books that feature LGBTQ or BDSM themes instead.

Another one of the novels sent to me for review by Xcite Books, this time concerning BDSM as the main theme.

Warning: SPOILERS ahead!

Rating: ★★★★☆ 4/5

“When this novel first arrived in the post, I was sceptical. The synopsis on the back was sort of interesting and I was intrigued by the fact that it was a winner of a Festival of Romance award but the blatant allusions to Fifty Shades of Grey were quite off-putting. I understand that it is easier to make things sell if you imply they’re like another hot property but there have been far too many books marketed like this in the past year. I’m bored of this type of marketing; it seems lazy and uncreative, especially when the book you’re talking about isn’t much like Fifty Shades at all.

This review is for a story from a BDSM anthology sent to me by the amazing people at Xcite Books.

Warning: SPOILERS ahead!

Story 8:Smile for the Camera by Kathleen Tudor (pages 76-81)

Rating: ★★★★☆ 4/5

“When I first read the title for this story, I expected it to be about a kinky photoshoot. I also expected it to be maledom/femsub with a heavy dose of compliments, teasing and eventual sex. It wasn’t. I’m not entirely sure why this was my first assumption considering the cover has a Domme with a paddle, but that’s what I immediately thought. Initially this was a disappointment since I find that kind of scenario extremely arousing but I decided to read the story anyway.

As you’ve probably guessed from the title of my blog and my life choices in the BDSM circle, femdom/malesub isn’t really my thing. It simply doesn’t work for me. So when I saw that this story had that setup I had my doubts as to whether it was going to be right for me or not. I approached this story with brief caution until I noticed that the relationship depicted was long distance – and had orders to boot! Since this is how my own BDSM relationship is I suddenly became quite interested.

This review was sponsored by the kind people at Xcite Books, who sent me a copy to review.

Warning: SPOILERS ahead!

Story 2:Hiding Out in His Sauna by Richard Hiscock (pages 54-61)

Rating: ★★☆☆☆ 2/5

“This story is about a guy who helps run a hotel with his family. He’s gay and apparently not very discerning about who he fucks or what conditions he fucks them under. Generally speaking I don’t like sluts so I suppose that taints my view of this story a bit. Our main character has no name and as you know, I really dislike that. He also suffers from being ridiculously horny all the time, which I also dislike. Nameless characters whose only trait is being horny really piss me off. It makes them bland and uninteresting, no matter what setting they’re in.

Alright; it’s supposed to be erotica but that doesn’t mean it can’t be good! You can have characters who are interesting and funny even on a word limit without detracting from the rest of the story!

This review was sponsored by the kind people at Xcite Books, who sent me a copy to review.

Warning: SPOILERS ahead!

Story 2:Late One Night at the Tourist Court by Michael Bracken (pages 12-17)

Rating: ★★★☆☆ 3/5

“After reading Cherry Ripe on the train, I read this next story straight away because it was very short and I was pretty bored. If I’m honest, it wasn’t impressive but there were some things I liked about it.

I’m afraid to say that this story unimpressed me from the get-go with a first sentence that was almost an entire paragraph long. Why is that unimpressive, you ask? Because it ran on too long and it was difficult for me to keep track of all the details! It would have worked much better as two separate sentences and then the grammar would not have been nearly quite as awful. This sort of thing really gets to me because I dislike having to reread something over and over to figure out what it is trying to tell me. You may have a different experience and that is fine but for me, this was agitating.

This review was sponsored by the kind people at Xcite Books, who sent me a copy to review.

Warning: SPOILERS ahead!

Story 1:Cherry Ripe by Maria Lloyd (pages 1-11)

Rating: ★★★★☆ 4/5

“I liked this story. It was about a young girl travelling to a boarding house, meeting a stranger and what happens next. Pretty simple storyline, but the execution is what matters. The beginning of this story surprised me because it took the time to give the female narrator some backstory before the meeting of the two main characters – Georgette and Lord Roxby – as well as to build up to the sex scenes. I know that with short erotic stories people generally want to focus on the sex and get to it as quickly as possible but I need to know things about the characters and settings first in order to fully enjoy it. I was very pleased with Cherry Ripe for this even before the sex scenes began happening.

This review is exclusive to my blog. A more general review of this XciteBooks collection will be posted directly on the sextoys.co.uk website.

Warning: SPOILERS ahead!

Story 2:In Brief by Kate J. Cameron (pages 11-21)

Rating: ★★★★☆ 4/5

“After the disappointment and annoyance that was the first story in this collection, I didn’t really want to keep reading through them all. I expected that I would receive the same type of headache-inducing drivel and be forced to write more bad reviews. I really dislike having to write bad reviews because it makes me feel guilty for disliking something, even if the reasons are justified. I prepared to read this story with a heavy heart…

This review is exclusive to my blog. A more general review of this XciteBooks collection will be posted directly on the sextoys.co.uk website. Let me just say this; I have read good, interesting erotica before and this story does not fit the description. I dislike writing bad reviews but I feel like this needs to be done.